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WISCONSIN 
SONNETS 



CHARLES H. WINKE 




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Book 



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Copyright N°. 



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COFmiGtCr DEPOSm 



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WISCONSIN SONNETS 



THE PRICE OF THIS VOLUME IS $1, POST- 
PAID. IT MAY BE ORDERED THROUGH ANY 
BOOKSEIXEB, OR OF THE PUBLISHERS, 530 
OAKLAND AVENUE, MILWAUKB:E, WIS. 



WISCONSIN 
SONNETS 



BY 

CHARLES H. WINKE 



MILWAUKEE 

BADGER PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1917 



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Copyright 1917, by Charles H. Wlnke 



OCT 2BI9I7 

©CI,A477200 
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AUTHOR'S FOREWORD 

OOME of these sonnets appeared originally in The 
Public and La Follette's Magazine. Others were 
first printed in the Sunday edition of The Milwau- 
kee Sentinel, and in The Evening Wisconsin. Sev- 
eral appeared in other publications. A number of them 
were widely copied. This and other evidence of appeal, 
other than local, including letters of appreciation from 
different parts of the United States, prompts me to 
offer them in a volume. 

Charles H. Winke 



Within the sonnet's scanty plot of ground — 

Wordsworth. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IVisconsin -------- Cf 

The IVisconsin Capitol - - - - - lo 

The Great Lakes - - - - - -ii 

Mihvaukee Bay ------ 12 

The Lighted Pane ------ 13 

Landscapes ------- 14 

The Forest Fire - - - - - - -I5 

The Grand Prix ------ 16 

War --------- 17 

The Great War ------ 18 

Neutrality - - - - - - - - ^9 

Wilson -------- 20 

Camp Douglas - - - - - - -21 

The Earth-Barque ------ 22 

Sight --------- 23 

Socialism __----- 24 

To A Train Announcer 25 

The Renters ------- 26 

The Clock -------- 27 

Eugenics -----"" ^° 

To Robert M. La Toilette ----- 29 

On Reading La Toilette's Autobiography - 30 



CONTENTS 

page; 
The Poet --------31 

The Aviator ------- 32 

Dynamite -------- 2>2> 

Concrete _-__-_- 34 

To A Pugilist - - - - - - -35 

Battle -------- 36 

Doubt -------- 37 

Sincerity ------- 38 

Wordsn'orth -------39 

Summer Storm ------ 40 

An Autumn Sunset ------ 41 



WISCONSIN SONNETS 



WISCONSIN 

■piNE and heroic hardwoods breathe low speech 

Among thy northern hills, in whose deep hearts 
The boon immeasurable of a hundred arts 
Waits for man's need ; into thy borders reach 
Broad areas of prairie, and on each 
Thou pilest harvest gold ; high-chimneyed marts 
Enhance the landscape's charm in all thy parts 
And greet the dawn along thy eastern beach. 

But not thy, outward beauty gives thee fame, 
Nor yet thy untold riches : 'T is thy men ! 
With the bright standard of their hopes unfurled 
On the brisk air of Progress, they proclaim 
Afresh the sovereignty of the Citizen, 
And herald a new Freedom to the world. 



THE WISCONSIN CAPITOL 

T TOW staid and unimaginative he 

Whom sudden beauty startles not to thought, 
Who could behold unstirred this structure wrought, 
From base to roof, in glorious symmetry ! 
High- domed, huge-columned, its white majesty 
And the rich hued interior have caught 
Some touch of that immortal Art which brought 
Renown to Athens in antiquity. 

Here where such beauty has been realized, 
Another God-sent Splendor makes its home — 
A thought, a dream, ennobling law and life — 
A bright possession not to be remised ! 
When Age dissolves these walls, this radiant dome, 
Wisconsin, may that) Presence still be rife ! 



10 



THE GREAT LAKES 

[By agreement hetwecn the United States and Great 
Britain, these waters are free from warships and other 
hostile activities by both nations.] 

^^[ O cannon-bristling squadrons ride at rest 

Within gun-sheltered harbors on these Lakes; 
Here but the urgency of Commerce wakes 
The cloven waves to song, with keels deep pressed 
Into their bosoms ; hurrying east and west, 
Trade's myriad-flagged Armada ne'er forsakes 
These seas at Desolation's best, but makes 
A fruitful highway of their neutral breast. 

O Shores and Oceans of the fort-stained Earth 
What will the triumph of the Future be 
When birds build safely in your every gun ! 
When all the ships innumerable that girth 
Your shining vasts shall share the ministry 
Of Peace and only her blest errands run ! 



II 



MILWAUKEE BAY 

[Viewed from The LaJae Front, Juneau Park.] 

TTERE from this height, green-mantled, where I 

stand, 
At the half -circle's center, musing how 
A something wrought in Nature may endow 
A stretch of water and a strip of land, 
And the low music of the murmuring strand. 
With power to stir the soul, I see the prow 
Of yon huge ferry scatter like a plow 
The placid blue, calmed by the air's still hand. 

Not all the loveliness of earth's confined 
To one much favored spot : this splendid bay, 
Howe'er unfamed, would no less glorious seem 
Were Naples' rapturous beauty called to mind ; 
Nor could its charm, on this rare summer day. 
Be rivaled by the magic of a dream. 



12 



THE LIGHTED PANE 

T TRAVELED lone and cheerless on a train, 

Dulled by the day's monotony, till I 
Beheld the splendor of the sunset sky 
Hued richly in a wayside window-pane ; 
Then, as when bars of an old stirring strain 
Enkindle heart and soul, my dazzled eye, 
Struck with the beauty that so suddenly 
Touched life, sent a great rapture through my brain. 

Would that my days, along the common way 

All mortals journey, might in somewise be 

The mirror of a rich Ideal, caught 

In loftiest conception, and convey, 

Like the sun-gloried pane that I still see. 

Their potent message to another's thought ! 



13 



LANDSCAPES 

A S a fair landscape lying in the night, 

Effaced till dawn, bereft of all that made 
It beautiful by day — hue, glitter, shade — 
Regains its beauty with the morning's light. 
So is man's brain a blank, until the bright, 
Warm flame. Imagination, wondrous-rayed. 
Floods it with impulse — then there are displayed 
What glorious prospects to the inner sight ! 

Thus, also, is the soul a region black, 
O'ershadowed by the blighting dread of death, 
Until quick Spirit touch illumines it — 
Then all its radiant loveliness comes back ; 
The soul-scape stirs as with a sacred breath. 
And shines as though with God's own splendor lit. 



1-4 



THE FOREST FIRE 

/^N, on, dread Flood of Devastation! Sweep 

All living things before thee ; wrap in flame 
The crackling, crashing forest ; lay hot claim 
To cot and clearing ; through the grasses creep 
Like angered reptile, hissing; wind-lashed, leap 
From blazing hill to flame-swept waters ; frame 
The very heavens in red, for naught may tame 
Thy fury till, too long unmoved, they weep. 

Though naught but desolation mark thy train, 
Rage on, red King of Ruin ! — not for long 
Shall thy dire victory remain complete ; 
With dauntless courage man shall claim again 
The ashen waste, and fruitfulness shall throng 
Up from the soil in gardens green and sweet. 



15 



THE GRAND PRIX— 

500-MILB AUTOMOBILE SPEED CONTEST. 

T N grim, terrific strife the cars spin round, 

Urged to vast effort by man's mad desire. 
Beating the grimy track with burning tire, 
Headlong and heedless o'er the trembling ground, 
Faster than rushing train, they speed with sound 
Of thunder ; and the , feelings they inspire 
Thrill the joy-frenzied multitude with fire 
As of a victory, life- fraught, profound. 

And yet, defying death, enduring pain 

Through many a wracking, numbing, choking mile, 

The drivers fail to wring from Time and Space 

One jot of speed these forces may not deign 

In jest to yield — illimitable the while 

The stars swing on in Heaven's stupendous race. 



i6 



WAR- 
NOT A GOD, BUT A DEMON. 

* I ^OO long a gay adventure it has seemed; 

Too long the world-old glamor of romance, 
The martial glow and the rich radiance, 
The stir of luring music, golden-themed ; 
Too long the lavish splendor we have deemed 
Bespoke its soul — held its extravagance 
Authentic, and its seeming puissance 
Divine: of nothing braver have we dreamed! 

Now let us pierce beneath the sham and show, 
Beyond the lure, and feel the vultures' thrill. 
See the rapacious monster as he is — 
See the revolting death-streams gush and jflow. 
Like freshets, on the gun-swept battle-hill, 
Where reeks the hideous harvest that is his. 



17 



THE GREAT WAR 

'' I ^HE fort-chains and intrenchments far outspread; 

The puppet armies that so quickly came 
To grapple in this grim, Satanic game; 
The deadly aircraft hovering overhead; 
The hungry siege-gims, with huge missiles fed. 
More ruinous than wind or quake or flame ; 
And all the many marvels without shame 
In cunning brains for this vast Outrage bred — 

It is not merely these. It is the weight 

Of murdered peace, the loss throughout the world. 

That gives this War its infamous renown. 

What shall it yield of good to compensate? 

O piteous host to swift destruction hurled ! 

O torrent of the living going down ! 



i8 



NEUTRALITY 

T AM a Teuton, or mayhap a Hun, 

A Briton or a Frenchman, Slav or Pole — 
Where'er the bloody tides of conflict roll 
There are my kin, death-armed with blade and gun ; 
It matters not for me if lost or won 
The battles are — how overwhelmed my soul 
With joy or sorrow — I must still control 
The racial strains that through my being run. 

The vaunting boast and the ofi^cnding gibe. 
And fools that dogmatize, may cause me pain, 
Yet in my heart no hatreds must be nursed ; 
The Nation's welfare and large aim prescribe 
A higher duty than contentions vain — 
In this big country none are last or first. 



19 



WILSON 

[Wntten on the sinking of the Lusitania iy a German 
sul)marine.] 

"C^OR Peace this calm, far-visioned man contends, 

Daring to face the calumny and blame 
Of those who, passion-blinded, would inflame 
The Nation's thought for false and selfish ends ; 
He sees, dark-imaged, what vast ill attends 
Woe-breeding War, yet does not slight the claim 
Of honor that is more than form or name ; 
Above the moment's harm his thought ascends. 

Time holds but few such crises for a land, 
And few wise leaders meet such fateful hour ! 
Though the whole world is frenzied with alarms, 
No hasty word profanes this Chief's command ; 
And Kings shall learn Forbearance, too, is power, 
That Peace is braver than the clash of arms. 



20 



CAMP DOUGLAS 
[TJie Encampment of the Wisconsin National Ouard.] 

TXT'HAT pageantry is this to daze the eyes? 

A tented city spread upon the plain ! 
The weary traveler, gazing from his train, 
Comes on the gleaming picture in surprise. 
A sentineled encampment, calm it lies 
Farm-bordered, foreign in this broad domain 
Of Peace and Happiness. Yet, there men feign 
War's brutal state, and battle dramatize. 

Such is War's subtle power that even I, 

Who loathe the monstrous thing, in dream became 

A Hindenburg. Invincible, I swept 

The enemy's expanse. How sweet to die 

My loyal troopers deemed it ! And my name 

Like a bright meteor through Time's heaven leapt. 



21 



THE EARTH-BARQUE 

T HEARD a discourse once in which the world, 

On Time's expanse, was Hkened to a ship 
For days swept helpless in a storm's fierce grip, 
Her hatches fastened and her canvas furled, 
Driven before tremendous seas which hurled 
Their weight upon her, toyed her like a chip, 
And from each mountain summit let her slip 
Down steep hell-wastes, whose waters foamed and 
swirled. 

But when at last the gale had spent its force, 

As reckless anger softens to regret. 

Behold what distance the staunch craft had run, 

Kept, as by miracle, to her true course ! 

So, through the bloody crises that beset 

The brave earth-barque, some gain is ever won. 



22 



SIGHT 

* I ^HRICE blessed they who have the power to see! 

O for a seeing soul, an open mind, 
A heart made keen to pierce the mists that blind 
The ways of life, through love more humanly 
To think and feel, through understanding be 
More largely tolerant, have wish to find 
The better part in all earth's human kind. 
Gain the Christ outlook through humility. 

Woukl I might gaze as from a mountain height, 
(For now I blunder in the fogs below, 
Dead to life's splendor, unresponsive, base,) 
And with view broadened judge all men aright; 
Through sense and spirit vision learn to know 
That God accosts me in my brother's face. 



23 



SOCIALISM 

ITZHEN finally it shall be understood, 

And take the color of the stateman's thought 
When Christly justice shall be truly sought 
Between man and his neighbor, as it should. 
Will not this lofty dream of Brotherhood — 
This hint of golden ages dawning, caught 
In the day's promise — then yield more than aught 
That pregnant Time has yet vouchsafed of Good? 

A thousand betterments have marked man's rise 
Through dark days past, each but a casual boon 
'Mid indescribable wrongs and follies strange; 
Then need we ridicule and stigmatize 
This heart-warm, glad Ideal, that so soon 
Must win acceptance in the whirl of Change? 



24 



TO A TRAIN ANNOUNCER 

"DEAL forth melodiously, clear-throated Cryer, 

Each magic name ; fill the tense, crowded room 
With golden tones ! Out where huge sheds engloom 
The day, the steeds of steel on mail and flyer 
Impatient wait, and with loud blasts respire. 
I pause enrapt, and while your voice's boom 
Rings out, bell-like, the distant Towns assume 
Forms wondrous fair, in visions you inspire : 

Not longer merely Capitals of Trade, 

Great throbbing Centers where unceasing strife 

Is waged for favor of the monarch Gold, 

But in the processes of time remade. 

As man himself, they stand, their sordid life 

Grown beautiful, beneficent, high-souled. 



25 



THE RENTERS 

[The poor of New York spend nearly one-half of their in- 
come in rent. Thirteen families own one-fifteenth of the 
assessed value of real estate in that city. A like concentrated 
ownership of land values exists in other large cities.] 

' I ''HEIR lives made heavy by unending care, 

Naught but the direst poverty know these ; 
They labor ever for the Lords of Ease 
And bhndly take privation for their share. 
Of hero mold, too patiently they bear 
Their Atlas burden, lacking wit to seize 
On any means that may their woes appease, 
And free them from their thraldom of despair. 

What might protects your greed. Monopoly? 
Bulwarked, you laugh : "The Law." (O sacred word, 
What infamies are sanctioned in your name!) 
Want-deadened millions bound to slavery, 
Rent-racked for a vast debt they ne'er incurred, 
Nor one their golden masters long may claim ! 



26 



THE CLOCK 

■1T7HAT seems more innocent than this machine 
Contrived to measure time ? And yet, behold 
The pulse and traffic of the world controlled 
By it! Enforcing schedule and routine, 
It has become a Tyrant set between 
Man and the freedom that was his of old, 
When but the hour-glass and the sun-dial told 
The pace of time, in city and demesne. 

None may escape the irksome discipline 
Its tireless hands impose in this grim day. 
Efficiency ? Perhaps, but dearly bought. 
The clock's exactitude so long has been 
Our life's enslaving guidance that its sway 
Outreaches God's, and shapes our very thought. 



27 



EUGENICS 

A LL other sciences merge into this, 

All human striving in this term expressed ! 
How may we best transmit that which is best 
To those who follow ; how lay emphasis 
On truth and staunch-miened beauty ; how dismiss 
The evil from our thinking, and divest 
Our primal nature, by the beast obsessed. 
Of sin's dread fruit, of greed and prejudice? 

This is its problem, and it seeks to aid 

Man's highest aspirations, to enhance 

His meed of happiness, to make him clean ; 

For this the whole world's effort, the keen blade 

Of Education, cleaving Ignorance, 

And more than all things else, the Nazarene ! 



2S 



TO ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE 

[Written on his becoming a national political figure.] 

\rOU are the idol of your green-hued State ; 

Filled with a purpose that has known no pause, 
You still are champion of a People's cause ! 
Through bitter years of conflict, early, late. 
You braved the foe, unmindful of your fate, 
That Privilege be banished from the laws ; 
And though you won the multitude's applause. 
The Few heaped ori you ridicule and hate. 

La Follette! ours is still the ancient strife 
That Liberty has waged from time unknown 
Against Oppression in its changing guise ; 
O lighten not the labor of your life! 
Unto the greater tasks to which you've grown, 
Bring undiminished your brave enterprise ! 



20 



ON READING LA FOLLETTE'S AUTO- 
BIOGRAPHY 

'T^HIS living book he laid at Freedom's shrine, 

That ardent Champion from whose fervent pen 
It clarioned his sleeping countrymen : 
Here stand revealed, in all their fell align, 
The Interests and their minions, in combine 
With servile Treason, perilous as v^hen, 
Two generations past, this Land again 
Bought its release in crimson battle line. 

But here stands, also, revelation bright 
With staunch assurance that rekindles hope : 
Once more we learn, whenever Tyrant strives 
To strangle Liberty and crush the Right, 
Men blazon forth (armed of the Just) to cope 
The jeopardy with their high-missioned lives. 



3d 



THE POET 

T T OWEVER impotent he may appear 

Amid the world's self-seeking aims and schemes. 

Still is the Poet greater than he seems : 

He wields dominion o'er the realm of dreams ; 

His is the wondrous gift of insight clear, 

Perceiving subtle truths, beyond the mere 

Dull faculties of sense; he is a Seer 

On whom an ever-glorious Dawning gleams. 

And his the duty, yielding joy and pain. 

To trace upon the ages through his art 

The trials and triumphs of man's mind and heart ; 

Transmuting both the glory and the stain, 

The worthy in man's striving and the vain, 

He shapes the years, oblivious of his part. 



31 



THE AVIATOR 

1 A AUNTLESS he circles in his white-winged ship, 

Mounting with whirring motor to the sky, 
Like some huge, humming man-bird ! Soaring high 
Where cold benumbs him, daring loop and dip, 
He heeds no menace, yet, with iron grip, 
Holds every sense alert : Who will deny 
To falter but an instant were to die ? 
Destruction laughs to note each death- fraught trip. 

Beneath him, through affrighting depths, appears 
The outline of the world, spectral and dim ; 
Above him arch uncharted realms of space ; 
What forces has he conquered ! and what fears ! 
What undreamed victories shall yield to him, 
And through his bold adventures, to the race ! 



32 



DYNAMITE 

O YMBOL of death and dire calamities 

It seemed to me, until I grasped what meant 
Such might stupendous, made obedient 
To man's aggressive will. A Hercules 
In every stick, what vast immensities 
Of plan and project owe accomplishment 
To it ! With it man rends a continent, 
Cleaving a channel, sheer-walled, for the seas. 

In this dread substance earthquake has become 
Commodity; this marvel of their thought 
Mankind deem commonplace, dream not its worth. 
God's proudest mountains to its shock succumb ; 
, Wherever its shattering blast bursts forth is wrought 
The miracle wherewith man conquers Earth. 



33 



CONCRETE 
[At the Annual Cement Show at Chicago.^ 

"^T'OU deem it all a too prosaic theme ? 

I scorn your judgment, critic. Wonder fills 
My heart, knowing this product of the mills 
Shall make immortal Architecture's dream. 
Henceforth of beauteous pearl, her towers shall gleam 
Imperishable, eternal as the hills 
Whose very bone this is, now as man wills, 
Shaped to his thought, of stone the stone supreme. 

A hundred centuries in vain man sought 
An adamantine substance. The earth's dust 
Yielded at last. City and river bed 
We now may build as the Creator wrought ; 
And when our age is gone, for die it must. 
They shall remain, its greatness not all fled. 



34 



TO A PUGILIST 

O WIFT gliding through the rounds, I see you still 
Under bright lights, your glistening body wet 
And dripping, like some swimmer's, with the sweat 
Of your great toil ; and as the furious mill 
Grinds fiercely on. T marvel at the skill 
With which you flit from danger, hard beset 
By your blood-covered foe. Tireless, you fret 
Him with your well-aimed batteries, until 

Conviction forming with the conflict's trend. 
Thrilled by your sure, compelling mastery 
Of thought and action timed to fine accord. 
The crowd acclaims you victor ere the end : 
This is the knowledge you have wrought in me — 
In any art. Perfection spells Reward. 



35 



BATTLE 

TT is the day of days, the hour of hours! 

It is an instant, or a century; 
Ay, it is Time ; perhaps Eternity 
Is endless test between exhaustless powers. 
It is a boon, a blessing that endowers 
With might and wealth, yet ever it must be 
A sacrifice, woeful calamity, 
A pitiless force that crushes and devours. 

A test of strength it is, the supreme trial. 

That utmost ordeal of intensity 

Toward which the arduous years and eons run ; 

It is endurance, patience, toil, denial, 

A tireless quest, and always, victory 

Is but a step toward vaster goals unwon. 



36 



DOUBT 

T^ ORN of despondency in moments blind 

With self-disparagement, it casts a shade 
On all life's hopes ; the brightest prospects fade 
Beneath its dread negation ; to dissuade 
Is its fell mission ; faithless, it can find 
Some fatal flaw in every project mind 
Or heart proposes, and its fetters bind 
To failure all on whom its spell is laid. 

Doubt, daring naught, with cringing soul denies 
What freer vision labors to create ; 
It magnifies the small and dwarfs the great ; 
It questions Truth, in Faith would recognize 
Naught but adherence blind, and in its eyes 
Death looms, the final cruel blow of Fate. 



37 



SINCERITY 

TT' NOWN but to the true souls that realize 

The emptiness of feigning, and how vain 
The artifices sham and show contain, 
It is the virtue through which mortals gain, 
And keep unbroken, the ennobling ties 
Of friendship and of love ; by it we rise 
To life's high call, and even Paradise 
May be reward of those who it attain. 

Sincerity! it is that heavenly thing 

Which blends divinity with word and deed. 

And makes of Love the world's one deathless creed ; 

It is the air on which the angels wing. 

The soul of all sublime accomplishing, 

The bond by which all good is guaranteed. 



38 



WORDSWORTH 

T T E worshipped Nature as no bard before, 

And found in her innumerable forms the soul 
That holds the universe in vast control : 
In shade-gloomed valley and mid mountains hoar, 
By lake and stream, on the resounding shore. 
And in the cloud-massed sky, — in the least scroll 
Of her deft hand and the harmonious whole, 
He found the Primal Being more and more. 

His eyes were blest with more than mortal sight, 

And on his ear the magic eloquence 

Of Nature fell a fresh, celestial chime ; 

In the ecstatic seasons of delight 

When Inspiration yielded thoughts intense 

He wrought the noble structure of his rhyme. 



39 



SUMMER STORM 

** I ''HE blinding lightning flashes, and the boom 

Of deafening thunder shakes the firmament 
With it the sound of flooding rain is blent 
In raging torrents, beating through the gloom. 
But lo ! the dread; impending hand of doom 
Forbears at last — light suddenly is sent, 
And then, all unaware, the storm is spent, 
Leaving a silence heavy as the tomb. 

The aching eye, behind its quivering shield, 
And tortured ear, in expectation wait 
For the tumultuous storm's continued play ; 
But stillness reigns above the wood and field, 
A wildbird whistles to his waiting mate. 
And awe and terror in the heart allay. 



40 



AN AUTUMN SUNSET 

** I ^ HE great red ember of the sun sinks low. 

On canvas of gray clouds at dusk amassed 
Rapt Nature paints a masterpiece surpassed 
Nowhere in Art ; its far-flung, fiery glow 
Illumes the firmament, until the flow 
Of darkness westward, slow, and then more fast. 
Engulfs its brave magnificence at last. 
And day succumbs to its relentless foe. 

And as I gaze in wonder on the sight. 

While yet the splendor heightens to its prime, 

A sense of awe upon my spirit gains : 

Within that vast expanse of vivid light 

I see portrayal, glorious, sublime. 

Of Him whose presence there eternal reigns. 



41 



NOTES 



NOTES 

THE WISCONSIN CAPITOL 

The beautiful capitol at Madison was completed in 
1916. It is built of Bethel, Vt., granite and cost over 
seven million dollars. Its interior shows many varieties 
of marble, making a riot of color at once striking and 
wonderfully harmonious. 

THE GREAT LAKES 

The following is an editorial which appeared in the 

Milwaukee Daily News following the reproduction of 

"The Great Lakes" in The Literary Digest, Nov. 14, 

1914: 

"The Great Lakes" 

Charles H. Winke, a Milwaukeean, has the distinc- 
tion of having his poem "The Great Lakes," recently 
published in The Public, copied and commented on by 
The Literary Digest. As there are thousands of poems 
from which The Digest has its choice, this is a compli- 
ment of considerable value. 

In comment, The Digest says : 

"By a well wrought sonnet we are reminded that 
not all of the waters of the world can be blood-stained. 
Mr. Winke is rather too fond of the hyphen — 'cannon- 

45 



bristling,' 'myriad-flagged,' etc. — but the thought was 
worthy of expression, and he has expressed it well." 

This thought that not all the waters of the world 
are now blood-stained is an excellent one to keep before 
the public. There are these inland seas upon whose 
bosoms float the great commercial ships carrying food 
and supplies from one city to another, transports of 
peace and of good will. It is well to remember that 
when cannon boom on the mighty oceans, the big ves- 
sels on the lakes are shuttles weaving through the 
warp and woof of the waters a friendliness and good 
will between the people of a number of cities and of 
two different countries. 

Mr. Winke's poem is timely and fine with contrasts. 
It is splendid that such wide attention should be brought 
to the fact that : 

"No cannon-bristling squadrons ride at rest 
Within gun-sheltered harbors on these Lakes ; 
Here but the urgency of Commerce wakes 
The cloven waves to song, with keels deep pressed 
Into their bosoms ; hurrying east and west, 
Trade's myriad-flagged Armada ne'er forsakes 
These seas at Desolation's best, but makes 
A fruitful highway of their neutral breast." 
46 



MILWAUKEE BAY 

This is not the only poem that Milwaukee and its 
beautiful harbor have inspired. A fine poem entitled 
"Milwaukee," by Mark Forrest, was printed in the 
Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin. A striking bit of poetic 
work entitled "Juneau Park, Milwaukee," by Jules Jen- 
kins, appeared in the Milwaukee Sentinel. There may 
be others of which I have no knowledge. My sonnet 
appeared in La Follette's Magazine and was reprinted 
in several of the Milwaukee dailies. 

NEUTRALITY 

When I submitted this sonnet to The Public, 
where it appeared, the last line read : "American am 
I — not last but first." The editor, Samuel Danziger, 
returned it with the objection that this line seemed 
to express a sentiment too much like "Deutschland 
ueber alles" or "Rule Britannica." I am not in sym- 
pathy with the narrow nationalism these slogans imply, 
and not wishing to be misunderstood, I changed the 
line to its present reading. In accepting the changed 
version Mr. Danziger wrote : "The poem now is un- 
impeachable." 

47 



SOCIALISM 

I have never been a socialist in a party sense, but 
I believe we are moving toward a higher order of 
human relationship, and that in time all government 
will be, not merely democratic, but socialistic. That a 
richer and better humanity will be the result no one 
can doubt. "To A Train Announcer" is expressive of 
this thought also. "Socialism" was printed in the Mil- 
waukee Sentinel ; "To A Train Announcer" in The 
Public. 

EUGENICS 

This sonnet was written after reading the following 
little essay by Dr. Frank Crane, which I append because 
of its comprehensive view of this subject: 

The One Science. 

After all, we have but one great problem before us : 
How shall we best transmit to children the fruits of 
cur effort ? 

Education : how shall we put them in possession 
of the knowledge we have gained, how classify that 
knowledge for their use, how train them to employ it ? 



Apprenticeship : how shall we give them the advan- 
tage of our experience? 

Government : how preserve for them the results of 
our economic experiments ? 

The Church : how hand on to them the gains of our 
spiritual life? 

Law : how maintain for them what we have learned 
by experience concerning justice between man and 
man? 

Literature and Art : how pass on to them the vision 
and inspiration we have had? 

Business : how give them the products of our work? 

Hygiene : how divert from them our diseases and 
endow them with our health ? 

There is but one universal human science, Eugenics. 



TO ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE 

This sonnet appeared in The Public in 1912 when 
Senator La Follette was put forward by the progressive 
Republicans for the Presidency. It was widely copied 
at the time. After the publication, in The Public also. 

49 



of the sonnet "On Reading La Follette's Autobiog- 
raphy," I received an appreciative letter from Senator 
La Follette in which he said : "The one to myself I 
read with feelings deeply stirred, when it appeared. 
The other is so good that I shall republish it in the 
Weekly." 



50 



THE EVENING WISCONSIN PRINIINS CO.. 
MILWAUKEE. WrS. 



